---
DOAJ_listed: '1'
OA_place: publisher
OA_type: gold
_id: '21899'
abstract:
- lang: eng
text: Cell extrusion is an essential mechanism for controlling cell density in epithelial
tissues. Another essential element of epithelia is curvature, which is required
to achieve complex shapes, like in the lung or intestine. Here, we introduce a
three-dimensional bubbly vertex model to study the interplay between extrusion
and curvature. We find a generic cellular bulging instability at topological defects,
which is much stronger than for standard vertex models. Analyzing cell shapes
in three-dimensional imaging data of spherical mouse colon organoids, we infer
that pentagonal cells have an increased basal interfacial tension, suggesting
that cells at topological defects react to the different force conditions. Using
the bubbly vertex model, we show that such basal tensions stabilize against the
predicted instability and result in better cell shape control than tissue-scale
mechanisms such as lumen pressure and spontaneous curvature. Our theory suggests
that epithelial curvature naturally leads to bulged and extrusionlike cell shapes
because the interfacial curvature of individual cells at the defects strongly
amplifies buckling effected by tissue-scale topological defects in elastic sheets.
Our results highlight the complex interplay of forces across scales in three-dimensional
tissue organization.
acknowledgement: O. M. D., M. B., and U.S. S. acknowledge support from the Max Planck
School Matter to Life, with funding by the German Federal Ministry of Education
and Research (BMBF), the Dieter Schwarz Foundation, and the Max Planck Society.
M. B. and U.S. S. acknowledge support from the cluster of excellence 3DMM2O (EXC
2082/1-390761711 and EXC 2082/2-390761711) funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
(DFG, German Research Foundation). The authors acknowledge the data storage service
SDS@hd supported by the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts Baden-Württemberg
(MWK) and the DFG through Grant No. INST 35/1503-1 FUGG. For the publication fee
we acknowledge financial support by Heidelberg University. O. M. D. thanks Edouard
Hannezo for valuable discussions. U.S. S. is a member of the Interdisciplinary Center
for Scientific Computing (IWR) at Heidelberg.
article_number: '021023'
article_processing_charge: Yes
article_type: original
author:
- first_name: Oliver M
full_name: Drozdowski, Oliver M
id: cd4ed792-b872-11ef-bb90-b7b3a3f62f75
last_name: Drozdowski
- first_name: Büşra
full_name: "Kocameşe-Tamgac\U0001D6A4, Büşra"
last_name: "Kocameşe-Tamgac\U0001D6A4"
- first_name: Kim E.
full_name: Boonekamp, Kim E.
last_name: Boonekamp
- first_name: Michael
full_name: Boutros, Michael
last_name: Boutros
- first_name: Ulrich S.
full_name: Schwarz, Ulrich S.
last_name: Schwarz
citation:
ama: "Drozdowski OM, Kocameşe-Tamgac\U0001D6A4 B, Boonekamp KE, Boutros M, Schwarz
US. Cell bulging and extrusion in a three-dimensional bubbly vertex model for
curved epithelial sheets. Physical Review X. 2026;16(2). doi:10.1103/x82g-cq7n"
apa: "Drozdowski, O. M., Kocameşe-Tamgac\U0001D6A4, B., Boonekamp, K. E., Boutros,
M., & Schwarz, U. S. (2026). Cell bulging and extrusion in a three-dimensional
bubbly vertex model for curved epithelial sheets. Physical Review X. American
Physical Society. https://doi.org/10.1103/x82g-cq7n"
chicago: "Drozdowski, Oliver M, Büşra Kocameşe-Tamgac\U0001D6A4, Kim E. Boonekamp,
Michael Boutros, and Ulrich S. Schwarz. “Cell Bulging and Extrusion in a Three-Dimensional
Bubbly Vertex Model for Curved Epithelial Sheets.” Physical Review X. American
Physical Society, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1103/x82g-cq7n."
ieee: "O. M. Drozdowski, B. Kocameşe-Tamgac\U0001D6A4, K. E. Boonekamp, M. Boutros,
and U. S. Schwarz, “Cell bulging and extrusion in a three-dimensional bubbly vertex
model for curved epithelial sheets,” Physical Review X, vol. 16, no. 2.
American Physical Society, 2026."
ista: "Drozdowski OM, Kocameşe-Tamgac\U0001D6A4 B, Boonekamp KE, Boutros M, Schwarz
US. 2026. Cell bulging and extrusion in a three-dimensional bubbly vertex model
for curved epithelial sheets. Physical Review X. 16(2), 021023."
mla: Drozdowski, Oliver M., et al. “Cell Bulging and Extrusion in a Three-Dimensional
Bubbly Vertex Model for Curved Epithelial Sheets.” Physical Review X, vol.
16, no. 2, 021023, American Physical Society, 2026, doi:10.1103/x82g-cq7n.
short: "O.M. Drozdowski, B. Kocameşe-Tamgac\U0001D6A4, K.E. Boonekamp, M. Boutros,
U.S. Schwarz, Physical Review X 16 (2026)."
date_created: 2026-05-20T14:35:57Z
date_published: 2026-04-30T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2026-05-21T06:08:11Z
day: '30'
ddc:
- '530'
department:
- _id: EdHa
doi: 10.1103/x82g-cq7n
file:
- access_level: open_access
checksum: a90e905968648ac4425c256de901e9c3
content_type: application/pdf
creator: dernst
date_created: 2026-05-21T06:05:49Z
date_updated: 2026-05-21T06:05:49Z
file_id: '21901'
file_name: 2026_PhysicalReviewX_Drozdowski.pdf
file_size: 5603164
relation: main_file
success: 1
file_date_updated: 2026-05-21T06:05:49Z
has_accepted_license: '1'
intvolume: ' 16'
issue: '2'
language:
- iso: eng
month: '04'
oa: 1
oa_version: Published Version
publication: Physical Review X
publication_identifier:
issn:
- 2160-3308
publication_status: published
publisher: American Physical Society
quality_controlled: '1'
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
title: Cell bulging and extrusion in a three-dimensional bubbly vertex model for curved
epithelial sheets
tmp:
image: /images/cc_by.png
legal_code_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
name: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)
short: CC BY (4.0)
type: journal_article
user_id: 2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87
volume: 16
year: '2026'
...